Reply #62: What you suggested plus....

[Armstead]

My first answer is almost non-political. We as a nation -- especially we as liberals and Democrats have to change our attitudes and start promoting vetter values for economic activity.

If you're a sprightly 52 :P you saw how the relationship between economics and business have deteriorated into a morass of greed and celebration of selfishness. For example, the notion of being a healthy company making reasonable profits was replaced by the notion that it was necessary to kill the competition and generate immense and obscene profits....The results of that "kill or be killed" mentality ultimately drove ouit all other factors, such as responsibility to workers and communities.

So we liberals at the grass roots -- and Democratic leaders -- have to start becoming advocates for a return to more humanistic and reasonable business values again. We have to stop enabling those destructive conservative values.

I believe that is necessary and possible. Nobody wants to support econoimic values that are screwing them. If Democrats become moral leaders again, that will also bring our side political power, and cultivate the ground of public opinion for real meaningful reform.

Other ideas:

Start virgorsouly enforcing anti-trust actions, especially when companies thatr are already way too big want to get even bigger.
That is NOT an anti-business proposal either. What it would do -- smong otehr things -- is to protect a truly free and competative market for smaller and mid-sized companies.

I'd also suggest fighting for a minimum wage that keeps up with the cost of living again. It used to do that, and it should do it again. It's not the be-all and end-all, but it would help those on the bottom, and also establish a clear signal that Demnocrats are back in the business of protecting workers' rights.

Also, democrats should stop buying into the neo-liberal "free trade" con job, and instead negotiate trade agreements with countries on a more case-by-case basis on a democratic (small d) basis. Recognize that a certain degree of protectionism is necessary to protect American workers and companies from unfair competition. Use provisions that protect us from foreign dumping. Also tie in trade agreements with requirements that other nations that want to trade with us have to guarantee their own workers fair pay and conditions....Also use strategies that make it more difficult for US corporations to ship operations overseas.

Restore the idea of media diversity, and regulations to require more accountability to the public interest from the media. That's not economic, but it is important.

Those are a few ideas.